(3) Moral panics

Moral entrepreneurs

These people may use the media to put pressure on the authorities to 'do something' about alleged problems, mostly concerning their dissaproval of some particular behaviour. If they are successful, their campaigning will result in the negative labelling of the behaviour and perhaps a change in the law

Moral panic

An exaggerated over-reaction by society to a percieved problem- usually driven by the media- where the reaction enlarges the problem out of all proportion to its real seriousness.
- Examples: single mothers, Muslim terrorists, asylum seekers, mugging and more recently trans people (particularly trans women, extending to drag queens (although that is more in the US than the UK))
- This is an important element in the moral entrepeneurs' process to pressure the authorities to 'do something' about alleged problems

Folk Devil

Stage 1 of a moral panic involves the media identifying a group as this - a threat or problem to societal values

Scale

Stage 2 of a moral panic involves the media presenting the group in a negative/stereotypical way and exaggerate the problems \---

Worry

Stage 3 of a moral panic involves society beginning to feel this regarding the group due to the media's representation of it and the scale expressed

Respectable people

Stage 4 of a moral panic involves these people (i.e., moral entrepeneurs, politicians, the police, editors) condemning the group and its behaviour

Crack down

Stage 5 of a moral panic involves this occuring on the group, but this often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy and amplifies the issue further

Cohen

The most influential study of a moral panic and the role of the media is this sociologist's (Stanley) book, 'Folk Devils and Moral Panics'. He examines the media's responses to disturbances between the two working class groups of Mods and Rockers, at seaside reports from 1964 to 1966

Mods and Rockers

The initial confrontations between these two groups started with a few scuffles, stone throwing, broken windows and wrecked beach huts at Clacton in 1964. however, although the disorder was relatively minor, the media overreacted. Stanley Cohen uses the analogy of a disaster to explain how the media produces an inventory of what happened

Exaggeration and distortion

- Media exaggerates the number involved and the extent of the violence and damage
- Media distorts the picture through dramatic reporting and sensational headlines

Prediction

- Media regularly assumed and predicted further conflict and violence would result

Symbolisation

- The symbols of the mods and rockers (e.g., clothes, bikes/scooters, hairstyles, etc) were negatively labelled and associated with deviance, which allowed the media to link unconnected events

Deviance amplification spiral

Stanley Cohen argues that the media produced this by making it seem like everything was getting out of hand - led to increased control response from the police and courts, which produced further marginalisation and stigmatisation of the Mods and Rockers as deviants and less tolerance of them and so on in an upwards spiral

Styles

The media further amplified the deviance by defining the Mods and Rockers by these related/specific to their subculture. This led to more youths adopting these styles and drew in more participants for future clashing. By emphasising the supposed differences, the media crystallised two distinct identities and transformed loose-knit groupings into two tight-knit gangs

Direct experience

Cohen notes that media defiinitions are crucial in creating a moral panic because, in large, mordern day societies, most people have to rely on information from the media about situations because they have none of this regarding the events themselves

Social change

Cohen argues that moral panics usually occur at times of this, reflecting the anxieties that some people may feel. The folk devil is created by the media to give focus to popular anxieties

Functionalist

This perspective argues that moral panics are formed as a response to anomie created by change. By dramatising the threat, the media raises the collective consciousness and reasserts social control when central values are threatened

Neo Marxist

This perspective locates moral panics in a context of Capitalism. They are used to divide groups such as the working class and to divert attention

Who

A criticism of the idea of moral panics is that it assumes the media reaction is an over reaction, but \--- decides this?

What

A criticism of the idea of moral panics is that there is nothing to suggest \--- turns the amplifier on and off and why the media are able to amplify some and not others?

McRobbie and Thornton

These sociologists criticise the idea of moral panics as they argue that the public are so accustomed to shock that moral panics are more routine and have less impact

Consensus

A criticism of the idea of moral panics is that in late modern society, there is little of this about what is deviant. Lifestyle choices that were condemned 40 years ago (e.g., motherhood) are no longer universally deviant, and so it is harder for the media to create moral panics about them (can be countered with them choosing other groups who are seen as 'recently' appearing/becoming a problem, such as trans people, to make moral panics about)